Metal detectors are typically operated using a transmit coil and a receive coil within a single coil assembly. However, the transmit and receive coils can be spatially separated into two different coil assemblies or boxes. In the metal detector industry, this arrangement is commonly referred to as a two-box coil system. An example of a two-box system is shown in Design Patent D274,704 which is assigned to Garrett Electronics. The two-box coil system is very effective in detecting large, deep targets because the coil arrangement utilized by the two-box system results in a detection field much larger than the individual fields of the two coils which constitute the two-box system. However, as a result of this large detection field it is very difficult to locate the target with precision. Therefore, it is a common practice to operate the two-box detector in conjunction with an additional detector having a standard search coil which has a much more limited detection field. In this practice, the two-box detector is used for the primary searching of an area and once the two-box detector has approximately located a target, a second detector with a standard search coil is utilized to locate the target with more precision. This practice has the disadvantage of requiring the use of multiple metal detectors.